It is characteristic of the customs of the period that Louis Joseph looked very indulgently upon his daughter’s friendship, and even proposed to secure for the Marquis de Gervaisais means for leaving his regiment at Saumur in order to come to Paris and thus be able to meet the Princess more freely. It was the lady herself who could not be induced to do aught that might bring a stain upon her name; and she wrote a most touching letter of farewell to Gervaisais, imploring him not to answer it, nor to try to meet her again, requests which his unbounded love for her induced him to accede to.
The festivities given in honour of the Russian Grand Duke were the last of the entertainments held at Chantilly; for, although the Princesse Louise in the absence of the Duchesse de Bourbon made a charming hostess, the separation of her brother from his wife, who had returned to her own family, cast an inevitable gloom over Chantilly. The young heir, the Duc d’Enghien, however, became warmly attached to his aunt, who acted as a mother to him. He was highly gifted and very proud of his famous ancestor, the Grand Condé. On taking his seat in the Parlement at the early age of sixteen he made a most able speech; whereupon the President remarked that never before had three members of the Condé family honoured the House of Peers at the same time. This, alas! was not for long; for we now approach that fateful year 1789, and the horrors of the French Revolution.
In July of that year, late in the evening, an adjutant of the Prince de Condé arrived breathless at the Château, bringing tidings of the terrible events which had just occurred in Paris. He told how a bullet aimed at the Royal carriage had killed a woman standing near; and how the King had been applauded when he appeared on the balcony bearing a “cocarde tricolore.” On hearing this, the three Princes de Condé accompanied by Princess Louise departed next day for Versailles. Their advice to Louis XVI was “not to yield”—advice which the King was loth to follow. The three Condés, seeing that they could not prevail upon him to remain firm, determined to quit France so as to be able themselves to remain true to their Royalist principles. In taking leave of the King, Louis Joseph said that he would endeavour to serve the Monarchy abroad, since he could no longer serve it in France.
Plate XVII.
LOUIS JOSEPH DE BOURBON, PRINCE DE CONDE.
Musée Condé.